The South Lake County Historical Society is hosting its second annual Heritage Day Festival on Saturday, November 3rd.  Come to Clermont’s Historic Village, 490 West Ave., Clermont, any time between 10 am and 4 pm and see people demonstrating chores and skills from the days of Clermont’s early settlers.  Listen to beautiful live music from hammered dulcimers and the Judy Family Gospel/Country Singers.  You will even get the opportunity to try your hand at things like churning butter, beating rugs, making clothespin dolls, using old hand tools & playing games from your youth (hopscotch, anyone?).  There will even be some Tin Lizzies for you to see.

The Historic Village is a unique partnership between the Historical Society and the City of Clermont.  Together they work at providing the citizens of South Lake County and visitors to the community with the opportunity to see what life was like in Central Florida over 100 years ago.  The people who settled here were hearty and brave.  They left the relative comfort of the homes up North and headed to an area that was known as “Mosquito County.”  Sounds inviting, doesn’t it?  Come to the Village to see what awaited them.

After touring the Village on November 3rd, the Clermont Downtown Partnership invites you to go into the historic downtown area (just a few short blocks from the Village) to attend their annual Art Festival.  In addition to over 30 talented artists vying for prizes, there will be crafters, a chalk art contest for children and much, much more.  The Art Festival will be held on November 3rd from 10 am to 5 pm and the November 4th from 10 am to 4 pm on Montrose Street.  

The Historic Village is open every Friday from 1 pm to 3 pm and every Saturday & Sunday from 1pm to 4 pm if you would like to see our historic buildings and simply cannot wait until November 3rd.  Admission is free but a $2.00 donation per person is requested.

If you are interested in history in general or the history of Lake County in particular, contact the South Lake County Historical Society by going to our website, ClermontVillage.org; by calling our manager, Roxanne Brown, at 352-432-3496 or by attending our membership meetings which are held on the second Monday of the month at 7 pm in the Train Depot in the Historic Village. 

The next meeting will be held on October 8.  After touring the Village, please like us on Facebook or mention us on Yelp.